Aims: Medical Imaging Simulated Radiation Therapy (MISRT) aims to reduce the financial and geographical burden of accessing palliative Radiation Therapy (RT) within WNSWLHD.
MISRT implementation for palliative cancer patients demonstrates extensive benefits to patients, health professionals and health resource management when quality peer reviewed research is translated into practice in a rural Radiation Oncology department. The use of MISRT enables more patients in WNSWLHD to access world-class RT and improves RT utilisation in rural and regional areas, through the elimination of RT simulation CT scanning.
Methods: Peer reviewed research has been translated to practice. One-on-one staff training sessions supported Radiation Therapists to develop knowledge and skills required for planning and treatment of patients on MISRT pathway. Training has also been provided to Medical Imaging staff within WNSWLHD to education on the requirements of MISRT. Upon completion of training, a staff survey using the Likert Scale and open-ended questions to evaluate the benefits to department resource management, time efficiencies and clinical workflow processes was completed. Additionally, a retrospective analysis of patient demographic data has been analysed to evaluate transport emissions generated by patient travel to access RT and associated cost savings.
Results: A feasibility project completed in 2022 allowed for 16 patients to undergo palliative RT using the MISRT pathway. Environmental impact analysis of this study resulted in eliminating 15400 kilometres of patient travel and saving 2.23 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Staff survey results support the expansion of MISRT in WNSWLHD Radiation Oncology. MISRT resulted in staff reported clinical workflow efficiencies and staff reported improvements in the human experience in delivering palliative RT to rural and remote populations.
Conclusion: The implementation of MISRT has demonstrated to be valuable to patients, specifically in decreasing time required for a patient to be present in the department. MISRT has also demonstrated an environmentally sustainable pathway to provide patients with world-class palliative RT treatment.